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Albert Luthuli W&M ScholarWorks Arts & Sciences Books Arts and Sciences 8-2018 Albert Luthuli Robert Trent Vinson Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/asbook Part of the African Studies Commons Albert Luthuli Robert Trent Vinson OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS ATHENS Ohio UnlwnltyPresa. Ohio Atbem, 45701 obloawallow.com C 2018 by OhioUnlwnity Pma Allrtgbu raerwd To obtain permiulonto quote, llpdDt.or otbenrllereproduce or dlatrlbutematerial from Ohio UnlwnltyPresa please publlcatlom. contact our rl&huand permlulonadepartmmt at (740) 593-1154 or (740) 593-4536(fu). PrintedIn the United Stata of America Ohio UnlwnltyPresa are boob printed on add-freepaper@· 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 543 21 Ubrary of CongreaCatalopng-ln-Publk:adon Data: Names:V'U110n, Robert 1'mlt, author. Title:Albert Luthuli / Robert'l'lent V'uuon. Othertitles: Ohio lhort lwlories of Africa. Description:Alhena, Ohio : OhioUahtmity Praa, 2018, I Series: Ohio ibon historiesof Africa Identifiers:LCCN 20180196251 ISBN 9780821423288(pb: Ilk. paper) I ISBN 9780821446t23(pdf) Subjects:LCSH: Luthuli, A. J, (AlbertJohn), 1898-1967,I AfricanNational Con,resa--Biopapby,I Govmunmt.Raiatana to--Soutb Africa. I South Mrica--Politicaand goffl'lllllalt--20tbcamiry. I SouthAfrica--� relations. Classification:LCC E184.H95 V56 2018 j DDC968.0509 2--dc23 LCrecord available at httpe://l«n.loc.gov/2018019625 Contents List of Illustrations 7 Acknowledgments 9 Introduction: Who Was Albert Luthuli? 11 1 The Education of a Zulu Christian 15 2 Chief of the People 24 3 The Nonviolent, Multiracial Politics of Defiance 41 4 Apartheid Violence and Armed Self-Defense 92 Coda 134 Notes 141 Bibliography 171 Index 185 5 Introduction WhoWas Albert Luthuli? \\'hen Albert Luthuli, president of the African National Congress (ANC), South Africa's leading antiapartheid organi zation, became the firstAfrican-born recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in December 1961, the world cele­ brated his advocacy of nonviolent civil disobedience. The prize signaled international recognition for his Gandhian strategy to end apartheid, South Africa'sdisastrous white supremacist political policy of racial subordination and separation, and connected South Africa's antiapartheid struggle to the growing global human rights campaigns exemplifiedby the 1948 United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. It propelled Luthuli to global celebrity and raised the profile of the ANC, which he had led since 1952. The ANC would survive lethal state repres­ sion in the l 960s and throughout two ensuing decades. As a mass organization, it articulated a broad, inclusive African nationalism and led the Congress Alliance, a multiracial, multi-ideological antiapartheid coalition that shared Luthuli's vision of a nonracial, democratic, equitable South Africa. Luthuli's admirers regarded him as a global icon of peace and reconciliation, similar to Mahatma Gandhi 11 and Martin Luther King Jr. M r than thirty years before el n Mandela walk d ut of pri on in 1990 onto the world tage with hi tirring tate man' vi ion of racial re nciliati n in a dem crati uth Africa, Luthuli was "Mandela befi re Mandela," adored by African , Indians, Col ured , and an increa ing number of white as a unique unifying figure. At that time, many regarded the A C pre ident a outh Africa' likely political leader if the di enfranchi ed majority could vote in a post­ apartheid, democratic tate. Although ome regarded Luthuli a a South African ver ion of King, hi fellow Nobel laureate declared him elf a follower and admirer of Luthuli. Both men hared a vi ion of universal love and Christian activi m again t the moral evil of white supremacy, linking South African and American free­ dom struggles to decolonization and labor movements in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. But while Gandhi facilitated Indian independence, King won major civil rights victories that ended a century of legalized Jim Crow segregation, and Mandela would become South Africa's first democratically elected president, Luthuli's extraordinary statesmanship did not result in similar victories. By the late 1950s, increasingly restrictive state banning orders limited his ability to participate in po­ litical activity. Luthuli is known as a staunch advocate of nonviolence, a moderate who never countenanced the ANC's armed resis· t ance. But recently available· arch1v· al documents and a nc· h vem· of autobiographical accounts and oral inter · views reveal that Luthuli, who rejected 12 claims that he was a moderate, had a lesser-known, harder-edged activism. He eventually accepted armed self-defense against an apartheid state that he regarded as a relic or reinvention of Nazi-era fascism, engaged in virtual slavery and the literal imprisonment of a multi­ tude of Africans. 1 Apartheid continued for decades after his tragic 1967 death on railway tracks in the isolated reserve of Groutville. Africa's first Nobel Peace Prize winner became a forgotten man, particularly outside South Africa.2 How did Albert Luthuli's many life experiences-as a Zulu, an African, an educator, a Christian, a government chief, a doting family man, and a sportsman-shape him as a person and a political leader? On the night of De­ cember 15, 1961, as Luthuli and his wife returned to South Africa five days after his Nobel acceptance, ANC members of a new military wing known as Umkhonto weSizwe (Spear of the Nation, or MK) set off the ex­ plosive charges that marked the start of their armed struggle. 3 The MK explosions raised doubts then and now: Was Luthuli a political contortionist, climbing the pedestal of peace while stooping to war? Had he been disingenuous to Nobel luminaries about his commit­ ment to nonviolence? Or did Luthuli's trip to Norway give ANC renegades the opportunity to contravene his strategy of civil disobedience? Was he complicit in MK's incendiary debut? If so, was his nonviolence more pragmatic than principled, more situational than un­ shakeable? How did he react to the appeals of future 13 Nobel recipient el on Mandela, who wanted Luthuli's approval before de troying in tallation and train ing saboteur ? What relevance do hi life and time have for today' South Africa and for the contemporary world! This biography aim to rec ver Luthuli from histor ic~ obscurity and highlight hi key leader hip of the ANC as it transformed into a ma antiapartheid movement and his revolutionary belief that apartheid South Africa could become one of the world' fir t truly multiraci~ democracies. Far from being a moderate, Luthuli was a revolutionary for hi deep conviction that South Africa, founded on the bedrock of racial ubordination and racial separation, could be a global model for a radical new form of multiracial democracy. 14 .
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